Studying medicine is by far one of the most difficult things you can do in university. There is so much to know in order to earn your license as a doctor, and, yes, you likely won’t use all the information you are currently learning right this second. However, just because you won’t use that information every day in your career doesn’t mean it isn’t important to know and learn. You must learn the basics and fundamentals by heart no matter what, and you also need to continually learn as you move forward.
What does this mean? It means that doctors-in-training need to develop their own learning strategy. The good news is that you aren’t restricted to pen and paper anymore. There are so many innovative learning guides and digital resources out there that can help make learning and memorizing more intuitive than ever. The best part is that these resources are also at the tips of your fingers. You don’t need to go out to a night class to take exams. Instead, you can use these top resources to help make studying, memorizing, and learning that much easier.
1. Your School’s Learning Management System Platform
The first and best place to start looking for resources is your school’s learning management system. Even if you aren’t taking an online degree, chances are key resources will be posted on this LMS regularly. Therefore, you need to check it often and, ideally, look through all the additional reading recommendations. Thanks to AI language models, you can even have those long studies or journals summarized for you, so you can go into each class with a more comprehensive idea of the topics that will be discussed and learned. At a minimum, read through the introduction and conclusions of the extra documents listed and the entirety of the journals considered essential. To really help your study efforts off the bat, create notes as you go and then delete what you consider non-important after you are done.
2. Exam Practice
As a doctor, you will be required to take lots of exams, whether it’s your shelf exams or your board review exams. It may be right around the corner for you or something you’re only vaguely aware of. Regardless, it’s important to start practicing now. Go through existing study guides and start revising as soon as you can to help take the pressure off. Then, start taking the practice tests online. These exams tend to be standardized, which means that the practice exam is a very effective way of preparing yourself for real-life exam conditions and a good way to put your studying efforts to the test. Take some time to find the best way to revise – it might be that you revise different subjects in different ways. Getting that nailed down will really help.
3. Online Tutoring
If there are some concepts that you are really struggling with and need additional time for, look for a tutor. Today, you don’t even need to go to the learning center to find such a tutor or take out precious time from your day commuting. Instead, you can find and learn online. There are several platforms already that integrate everything from the video call system to even a collaborative note system that allows tutors to effectively explain and teach so that you can finally understand the information rather than just try to memorize it. Try different platforms, too; they all have their own styles – you might find a particularly good tutorial on one, but another platform has better visuals, and so is better for a different topic.
4. Digital Note-Taking Apps
Cloud-based note-taking apps like Evernote or OneNote are a great way to compile multi-media notes across your devices. This way, you can easily jot down notes using your laptop during class or when you are reading and then revise on the go on your phone, for example. The ability to link where you got the information is another instrumental feature, as is the ability to add pictures and even videos.
5. Medical Knowledge Resources
There are so many great medical knowledge resources available directly online. Some of these are subscription-based but, in return, will give you access to the latest medical journals, textbooks, and even clinical practice guidelines. If you’re feeling the pinch on your finances already, don’t worry, as there are also free alternatives that offer essential news, articles, and even videos to help you as well.
6. Your University’s Library
Finally, your library. Whether online or in-person, your university’s library is going to be by far the most important resource you use. Not only is your library how you’ll gain access to medical journals online, but it’s also a great place to go for reference books, textbooks, and so much more. If you can’t find what you’re looking for, put in a request to your librarian. Librarians are much more than just stock managers. Their primary goal is to connect visitors with the information that they’re after.